Shawn Burr played most of his career with the Detroit Red Wings and was very popular with fans and teammates. / Detroit Free Press file photo

by George Sipple and Helene St. James, USA TODAY Sports

by George Sipple and Helene St. James, USA TODAY Sports

DETROIT - Shawn Burr, whose upbeat personality made him a fan and teammate favorite during his time with the Detroit Red Wings, has died.

Burr was 47. He had battled cancer in recent years, but died about 7 p.m. ET Monday after a fall earlier in the day at his home in St. Clair, Mich., that caused massive brain trauma, according to Dave Goetze, who runs the Shawn Burr Foundation.

Kris Draper played only a couple seasons with Burr, but said anyone that was around Burr any significant amount of time had a good time.

"If you were in the same room with him, you knew you were going to laugh and you knew it wasn't going to be quiet," Draper said. "He was definitely a guy that had a lot to say, talked a lot, had some unreal one-liners. Very quick, very witty. Just a great guy to be around. I probably saw him more in our golf tournaments than I did playing with him.

"It's a big loss for the hockey community. The sad thing is we all know he was sick and he was battling cancer. From the sounds of it, it was something that wasn't related to the cancer that he was fighting."

Chris Osgood overlapped with Burr during Burr's last seasons with the Red Wings and remembers a guy who never stopped talking - or laughing.

"He was a funny guy, a nonstop talker, always had a trick to play," Osgood said. "My first game as a rookie, he put my name upside down on my jersey. He was the guy in the '90s who kept everybody else relaxed. He did the dirty work for the team on the ice and then kept the guys relaxed in the dressing room."

Burr was drafted by the Red Wings seventh overall in 1984, debuting with them the following season. He would go on to play 16 years in the NHL, completing his career with the Tampa Bay Lighting and San Jose Sharks. He produced 181 goals and 259 assists for 440 points in 878 games.

Burr's larger-than-life personality shone through in interviews and on the ice. After departing the Red Wings after the 1994-95 season - which saw the Red Wings go to the Stanley Cup Final - Burr went from Tampa Bay to San Jose and back to the Lightning for one last go-round, in 1999-2000.

He returned to the Detroit area to live, joining the Red Wings' alumni association. The quality of the games might have changed, but Burr's personality hadn't.

"I know some of the other guys on the alumni team, they told me he'd sit in the dressing room and talk non-stop," Osgood said. "Then he'd take a shift on the ice, and when he was done with it, talk again.

"He had a lot, a lot of energy. He always had something going on."

Burr was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2011, but underwent treatment, including chemotherapy. He eventually had a bone marrow transplant operation, came through it and beat the cancer back.

Keith Gave, a former Red Wings beat writer for the Detroit Free Press, said Burr was someone that teammates and news media members gravitated to in the locker room.

"It's devastating news to me," Gave said. "Shawn Burr was not only a fun guy to watch play hockey, but he was one of the finest people I ever met.

"In the dressing room he made us laugh and he made us cry. He was the kid in the corner in tears at the end of every season when they got knocked out of the playoffs. Most of all, he made the game fun for everybody. He shared the experiences with everybody. His teammates tolerated him because he talked so much and opponents hated him. He was a Claude Lemieux-type.

"In the end, he probably talked his way out of Detroit. He talked too much for Scotty Bowman's liking. He always had a crowd of media around him, because he talked and he spoke well. I would compare him a little bit to Kris Draper. He was one of those guys you gravitated to."

Gave said Burr always had a few new jokes to tell on a daily basis after practice.

Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill played with Burr on the Red Wings and remembered him being a fun-loving guy.

"Just full of life," Nill said. "He was always talking in the dressing room. Character guy. Always had a smile on his face. Just a good man."

George Sipple and Helene St. James write for the Detroit Free Press, a Gannett affiliate.